Spend a few hours in the sprawling Taipei Botanical Garden, a landscaped parkland in the heart of Taipei’s Zhongzheng district. Follow the boardwalks through the rainforest-like parkland, admire the ancient buildings and lotus ponds, or read a book under a pagoda.
The Taipei Botanical Garden has its roots in 1896 but didn’t become an official botanical garden until 1921, when the then ruling Japanese used the green space to study natural sciences. The park is part of the Nanhai Academy today.
Everything from big Australian eucalyptus and melaleuca trees and colorful European rhododendrons, to prickly North American cacti and tiny Japanese bonsai trees is on display.
Look up at the treetops to see cheeky squirrels chasing each other. Birds, fish, reptiles and insects love this garden as well and you can often spot kingfishers and moorhens, dragonflies and butterflies, and lizards and frogs by the ponds.
Visit the lush garden for some time away in nature or, if you are into botany, to admire individual plants. There are 17 districts and 9 ponds in this well-maintained garden. The herbarium is from 1924 and there is also the Guest House of Imperial Envoys from the Qing Dynasty, which dates back to 1888 and was relocated here just before World War II. When the war broke out, the garden was neglected and many species were lost, but it was revived soon after and hundreds of thousands more species have been added since.
The Taipei Botanical Garden is locatd along Nanhai Road in Zhongzheng District. The garden covers an area of about 37 acres (15 hectares) and includes over 1,500 plant species.
The garden is a short stroll away from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT Station. Exit 3 of the Xiaonanmen MRT Station is also just minutes away.
The garden is maintained by the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and entry is free of charge. Some parts of the complex are closed on Sundays and Mondays. The signage is in both English and Mandarin.
Combine your visit to the garden with a trip to the adjacent National Museum of History.
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